SOAS CYS Post-Graduate Student conference

various speakers

Here at the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies it is our remit to promote, support and share great research happening in the field of Yoga Studies. We know that our audience is interested in the latest, most exciting work and how it’s done. We also know that it can be hard for graduate students in particular to find knowledgeable, supportive audiences with which to share their work.

With this in mind we are very excited to be hosting our first Post-Graduate Student conference, featuring graduate and post-graduate students who have either nearly completed their Master’s dissertation, or are in the early stages of their doctoral thesis, and are ready to offer a paper introducing the research to a wider audience.

Each panel will be moderated, and the series will end with a round table to discuss and reflect upon the emerging themes of the series, and the future of Yoga Studies research as represented by early career researchers. Our moderators are: Prof. James Mallinson from SOAS, Dr. Daniela Bevilacqua from the Hatha Yoga Project, Borayin Maitreya Larios from the University of Vienna, and Dr. Theo Wildcroft from SOAS.

This event is free. Booking is via our Eventbrite page.

Conference schedule

Monday 28th June 7-8.15pm UK time

Chair: Dr. Borayin Larios, University of Vienna

1. Janel Schullo - Residential Yoga Teacher Trainings: Adult Learners and Yoga as Pedagogy that Transforms?
2. Magdalena Kraler - The Occult In Modern Yoga: A Case Study Of The Latent Light Culture and Yogic Breath Cultivation (Prāṇāyāma), 1905–1935.

Wednesday 30th June 7-8.15pm UK time

Chair: Prof. James Mallinson, SOAS

1. Ruth McNeil - Upright: The Soteriology of Straightness
2. Erica Morton Magill - Microorganisms from a Macro Perspective: Reverence for the Smalls in Jain Yoga
3. Scott Lamps - Early Samādhi: Evolution & Meaning in the Nikāyas, Upaniṣads & Mahābhārata
4. Corinna Lhoir - Concepts of Self in Jain Yoga with reference to the Yogapradīpa, a Medieval Jain text on Yoga

Monday 5th July 7-8.15pm UK time

Chair: Dr. Theodora Wildcroft, SOAS

1. Sally Brown - Exploring minority experiences of accessing yoga. A qualitative study of regional British cities
2. Firdose Moonda - Yoga, Politics and Possibilities for Social Justice
3. Amelia Louise Wood - Yoga, Feminism(s) and Notions of Liberation

Wednesday 7th July 7-8.15pm UK time

Chair: Dr. Daniela Bevilacqua, Hatha Yoga Project

1. Robert McDougall - Deities and Perspectivism in the Traditional Indic Knowledge Practice
2. Lauha Halonen - Narratives of yoga among the middle class practitioners in Bangalore 10/2005-2/2006
3. Brigid Boll - Who’s Afraid of the Menstruating Body? Reflections on Menstrual Taboo and Yoga

Friday 9th July 7-8.15pm UK time - Round Table

The conference will end with a round table in which we discuss the reflections of our panel chairs, the experiences of our presenters, emerging themes for the future study of yoga, and advice for those in the audience who might also be considering post-graduate study in Yoga Studies.